Secrets, Lies and Locker 62 by Lil Chase

Secrets, Lies and Locker 62 by Lil Chase
Buy Secrets, Lies and Locker 62 by Lil Chase at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Predictable execution and some incredibly immature characters mean that a good concept goes to waste here.
Buy? No	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 304	Date: August 2012
Publisher: Quercus
External links: [www.lilchase.com/ Author's website]
ISBN: 978-0857384836
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Ever since popular, bright, sporty Hillary Randle vanished from Mount Selwyn High 13 years ago her locker - locker 62 - hasn't been used. At least not in the normal sense. Instead, people have posted their deepest, darkest secrets into it, knowing that no-one will find them out. Until a new girl, Maya, comes to school and is given the combination to the locker - and to a generation of people's mysteries. Will she use them to become popular, or to help people?

I loved the concept behind this novel and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Sadly, the execution was nowhere near as good as the idea. It suffers badly from an entire cast of characters who nearly all seem to act as if they're primary-school children - from the teens like Maya and her 'beffy' Frankie (does anyone use words like that in real-life?) to the adults, especially her mother and the science teacher. On a side note, the science teacher seems so completely unaware of the idea of pupil confidentiality that I can't believe he'd last even a week working in a school. They're, in the main, ridiculously self-centred and act like complete sheep. (I'll give a pass to Maya's mum's ex-boyfriend, Dave, who I found to be realistic, and a minor character called Billy who I'd have liked to see more of.)

Add to that a few other problems - it's staggeringly predictable and by the halfway point I'd worked out most of the things that were going to happen, while the writing style is best described as functional. I got through it quickly enough because I had a few hours with nothing else to read and it was, in fairness, a relatively easy read, but there was never anything which had me particularly interested.

Sadly I'd chalk this one up as a missed opportunity considering the excellent premise. I should point out that Zoe, a fellow Bookbag reviewer, read Chase's debut and was far more impressed than I was with this one, so it may well be worth giving that one a try and taking a look at this one if you enjoy her style.

For another story about a girl reinventing herself at a new school, Ginger Snaps by the wonderful Cathy Cassidy is significantly more to my liking.

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